Wildlife Exempt Questions

[IkemanTX]

Thanks for all the info y’all. It seems like it may be a lot easier than what I had originally guessed.


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[BTLowry]

Smith county was easy to deal with

Find out who is over 1-D-1 for your countyand go talk to them

We have a list of 7 things

Supplemental feeding of wildlife
Providing bird houses
Controlling predators (feral hogs are listed as a predator )
Erosion control
Supplemental water

Don't recall the other 2 right off

Had to write a wildlife management plan but there is a guide on TPWD website AND the local biologist was more than willing to help tweak it

Really was not hard at all

[TKRanch]

Wildlife and livestock for AG valuation are not mutually exclusive. You can absolutely have your designation be Wildlife and still have livestock, it just needs to be a property with size and groceries to handle it and it should be part of your plan.

[MarkV]

Thinking about making the change on an even smaller place and been researching what to do.

[Mountaineer]

Wildlife Exempt Questions

I did it in Hunt County last year on a similar sized property. It's easy. You can probably do it for 2019 if you want. I think I needed the plan in by sometime in late March last year, but Fannin might be different. I would recommend contacting the biologist for Fannin, they will email you sample plans.

Easy/cheap things to do: bluebird boxes, brush management for cover, planting food plots/native vegetation, planting trees and cutting cedars, digging water holes for supplemental water, predator control

I built 6 bluebird boxes from free scrap cedar boards last month or you can buy them.

[IkemanTX]

I did it in Hunt County last year on a similar sized property. It's easy. You can probably do it for 2019 if you want. I think I needed the plan in by sometime in late March last year, but Fannin might be different. I would recommend contacting the biologist for Fannin, they will email you sample plans.

Easy/cheap things to do: bluebird boxes, brush management for cover, planting food plots/native vegetation, planting trees and cutting cedars, digging water holes for supplemental water, predator control

I built 6 bluebird boxes from free scrap cedar boards last month or you can buy them.

The reason for the 2020 timing is because the neighbor has it leased until the end of this year for cattle grazing. He definitely runs way more head than is compatible for wildlife, so I’ll just start it all in January of next year.

I could definitely throw together some bluebird boxes, that is an easy one to check off the list.


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[Radar]

Here’s a link with some info. This is another place that provides a service helping folks get WE.

http://www.landmarkwildlife.com/wildlife-exemption/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI16HM-dDc3wIVysDACh0mnQmmEAAYASAAEgJG9PD_BwE

Skinny

I have been using them for 4 years now. I still let kids from UT come out and do lab studies on my place. I donate a little cash to the UT biology lab every year.

A kid come out in November and caught some frogs and tadpoles out of one of my tanks. He was from Argentina and a full time student at UT. He did not understand Texas slang and he would not drink a Lone Star with me . Dang kids

[tdwinklr]

I am looking for information about transferring property from agricultural tax exempt, to wildlife tax exempt. I am slowly preparing for applying in 2020, and there seems to be dozens of ways to handle it. I am wondering if anyone had experience with which options might be the least cost prohibitive in regards to the yearly improvements needed to meet an approved management plan.



The property sits in central Fannin County and is 40 acres of blackland clay. As small as it is, I know there will be a lot of limiting factors. i.e. I cant make quail a management goal, because the property won’t sustain a population.



My personal goals are to eventually restore a majority of the property to native blackland prairie, add a decent chunk of hard and soft mast trees, provide supplemental forage to deer via about 4ac of food plots, and increase dove usage. The prairie restoration will take time, financially, to get to and I don’t want a plan approved with that specifically listed. That way, if we are unable to afford a project of that scale in time, we haven’t violated the exemption’s management plan.



I have heard some people mention songbirds as being a fairly easy management plan, with little capital needed. But, I am not sure how easily a plan like that would get approved. I plan to have discussions with the NRCS before any decisions are made, but figured I would see if anyone here had direct experience with the process and could give me any reccomendations.




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I have land in Fannin as well and also looking to getting wildlife exemption except that my land was never put into ag-exemption ever so I'm started from ground up. Have done a lot of homework on this. Sound like you're already aware the WE requires you do at least 3 out of 7 of TPWD wildlife mgmt activities and keep ANNUAL records of it. Once you get the ag swapped over to the WE, it seems pretty east to maintain it, unless you start building stuff out there.
I had a TPWD biologist come out and we walked over the property. It really helped because he pointed out things I would never have thought of to do, made note of some important tree types to keep and those to get rid of, and also some different options in getting the WE quicker in my particular county.
PM me and I'll send you who to contact and more info. Let us know how it goes.

Good luck!

[Mbone]

TPWD biologist is where to start! They will help you with a management plan as well as 1d1. They want to see management for all wildlife on the 1d1 not just deer.
If the property has been in ag you may want to look into CRP.

I just went through the process last year, let me know if you have any questions.


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[phibob808]

Here is a link to the application online. Should help with some questions.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdforms/media/pwd_885_w7000_open_space_agric_valuation_wildlife_mgmt_plan.pdf

[RiverRat1]

We just did it. A 1-D-1 valuation is a subset of Ag exemption. You must have an ag exemption for 3 years before you go to a 1-D-1.

Next step and best and easiest advice - call your local TPWD Biologist. He or she will walk you through the simple process for FREE. And they will know what your county will want.

It is very simple and easy. Some counties like mine want proof of what you did - photos, receipts, calendar work days, of each of the activities you did. Some will just want an annual statement of what you did.

I just met with our TPWD biologist. Super easy and they will tell you everything you need to know.

It's 20x easier than it appears when just reading online.

[KactusKiller]

Here is a question sort of on topic, if a person has 32 ac, the property fell out of ag before I bought it but may add neighboring 76 ac that still has an ag exemption is there any way to merge them into one plot again as far as the CAD is concerned so they can be one property and now share the ag exemption?

Also I have already started the land management process for wildlife on the 32ac with lots of brush clearing, food plots planted, cedar reduction etc. We are currently starting to rebuild the fencing so we can carry livestock.
I'm just looking for a quick way to get the smaller property back in an exemption plan.

[phibob808]

Here is a question sort of on topic, if a person has 32 ac, the property fell out of ag before I bought it but may add neighboring 76 ac that still has an ag exemption is there any way to merge them into one plot again as far as the CAD is concerned so they can be one property and now share the ag exemption?

Also I have already started the land management process for wildlife on the 32ac with lots of brush clearing, food plots planted, cedar reduction etc. We are currently starting to rebuild the fencing so we can carry livestock.
I'm just looking for a quick way to get the smaller property back in an exemption plan.

How long has the land been out of AG?

[KactusKiller]

How long has the land been out of AG?

since 2014, I bought it in july of 2017. It was just an old rundown property some sons inherited but lived out of state so it sat vacant for a long time. Nobody paid attention to it so it slipped out of ag, now the tax office says it will be a 4 yr application process and on the 5th yr it can get approved. seems flat crazy red tape to me.

[El General]

Wildlife Tax exemption

My cousin is a self employed wildlife biologist that used to do a ton of 1-d-1 conversions to wildlife. There were a few counties where he did so much work that he built a relationship with the Tax Assessor/Collector and could occasionally get waivers for the waiting period.

Most of his business is in Central Texas, but it may be worthwhile to contact a local biologist to see if they can help you out.